Masten receives 2018 Smith College Medal

Dr. Ann Masten
Dr. Ann Masten

Ann Masten, Ph.D., Regents Professor and Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development in the Institute of Child Development, recently received a 2018 Smith College Medal, which recognizes extraordinary Smith College alumnae for their professional achievements and outstanding service.

The Smith College Medal was established in 1962 to recognize alumnae who exemplify in their lives and work “the true purpose” of a liberal arts education. More than 200 Smith alumnae have received the award, including journalist and activist Gloria Steinem and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Masten was one of four alumnae to receive the medal this year.

“[Dr. Masten’s] impact on the field is immeasurable. Over the arc of her academic career, Dr. Masten’s work has spanned the local (homeless families in Minnesota) to the global (immigrant youth in Greece and Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot regime), closely observing the promotive and protective factors that characterize resilient youth and their ecosystems,” said Patricia Marten DiBartolo, Ph.D., associate dean of the faculty at Smith College. “Her multidisciplinary research, incorporating variables from the biological to the cultural, has nuanced and propelled resounding concepts in the discipline–resilience, pathways, developmental cascades, cumulative risk–that help weave together reproducible and predictive scientific knowledge with rich human narratives of triumph over adversity.”

Masten received the medal during Smith College’s Rally Day, which took place on Feb. 21, 2018. Watch Masten deliver her acceptance speech of the medal.